Looking to the West (1860-1900)

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Looking to the West (1860-1900)
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The Life of the Plains Indians

• Eastern settlers changed the lives of N. A. on
  the Great Plains
• Indians French traded buffalo hides for guns,
  making hunting easier
• Horses made N. A. warfare much more intense and
  violent
• Many N. A. became nomads b/c of the horse. Became
  more mobile to follow food sources
• Warrior societies led to much more violence and
  instability

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Indian Wars and Government Policy

• N.A. lived on traditional lands W. of Mississippi
• N. A. viewed settlers as invaders, Settlers took
  land from N. A.
• (Settlers vs. N.A. invaders vs. owners)
• Govt treaties forced N. A. onto reservations
• Settlers ignored treaties
• Acts of violence led to cycles of revenge. Both
  sides guilty.

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Brutality, Unfulfilled Promises, and Butchery

• Treaties
• Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867
• Fort Laramie Treaty (1868)
• Most Indians angered by the treaties
• By 1868, war parties were raiding cities in
  Kansas and Colorado
• In response, army troops killed any Indians who
  refused to stay on reservations

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Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867

• The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for
  three treaties signed between the United States
  government and southern Plains Indian tribes in
  October 1867
• Under the Medicine Lodge Treaty, the tribes were
  assigned reservations of diminished size compared
  to territories defined in an 1865 treaty
•  the Congress effectively further reduced their
  reservation territory

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Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

• In the treaty, as part of the U.S. vendetta to
  "divide and conquer", the U.S. included
  all Ponca lands in the Great Sioux Reservation.
• Conflict between the Ponca and the Sioux/Lakota,
  who now claimed the land as their own by U.S.
  law, forced the U.S. to remove the Ponca from
  their own ancestral lands in Nebraska to poor
  land in Oklahoma.
• The treaty includes an article intended to
  "ensure the civilization
• minors should be provided with an "English
  education" at a "mission building."

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Key Events in the Indian Wars, 1861-1890
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Key Events in the Indian Wars, 1861-1890
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Warring Sioux

• Several Sioux tribes fought to stay on their land
  and protect their hunting grounds
• Raided settlements and harassed miners
• Sitting Bull
• Leader of non-treaty Sioux
• Strong fighting expertise

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Rising Tensions in the West
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Sand Creek (1864)
US army massacred Cheyenne, Arapahoe Older men,
women, And children. Eastern Colorado
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General George Armstrong Custer

• General in the Civil War
• Infamous Indian fighter during the Sioux Wars
• Wanted to find gold in Black Hills
• Defeated in the Battle at Little Bighorn (1876)

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The Sioux Wars
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between
the United States and various subgroups of
the Sioux people that occurred in the later half
of the 19th century.
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Sitting Bull

•  was a holy man who led his people as a tribal
  chief during years of resistance to United States
  government policies.
• Sitting Bull's leadership motivated his people to
  a major victory.
• He was killed by Indian agency police on
  the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an
  attempt to arrest him

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Little Bighorn

• Army moved to assault roaming Sioux in 1876
• 600 troops marched on Little Bighorn River
• Custer separated his men and sent half of his
  forces straight into battle
• This group and the rest were wiped out by
  Cheyenne and Sioux
• Defeat angered the army who became even more
  ruthless

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Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custers Last
Stand)
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The Little Bighorn today
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Wounded Knee Creek

• The Ghost Dance
• In honor of Wovoka
• December 29, 1890
• Seventh cavalry was sent to round up a group of
  Indians at Wounded Knee when an excited Indian
  fired a shot
• The soldiers then open fired
• More than 300 Indians killed in minutes

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Saving the Indians

• More and more Americans disagreed with Government
  Indian policies
• The Womens National Indian Rights Association
• Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson
• They thought breaking up the reservations and
  assimilating the Indians into society was the
  best thing
• Dawes Severalty Act
• Gave individuals acreages
• of land and made them
• citizens of the U.S.

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Attempts to Change Native American Culture

• Many people believed that Native Americans needed
  to give up their traditions and culture, learn
  English, become Christians, adopt white dress and
  customs, and support themselves by farming and
  trades.
• This policy is called assimilation, the process
  by which one society becomes a part of another,
  more dominant society by adopting its culture.
• In 1887 the Dawes Act divided reservation land
  into individual plots. Each family headed by a
  man received 160 acres.
• Many Native Americans did not believe in the
  concept of individual property, nor did they want
  to farm the land. For some, the practices of
  farming went against their notion of ecology.
  Some had no experience in agriculture.
• Between 1887 and 1932, some two thirds of this
  land became white owned.

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Assimilation and the Indian Schools

• Carlisle, PA, other sites around the U.S.
• Genoa, Nebraska
• Attempted to save the Indian by making them
  assimilate into American culture, manners and
  customs
• Formed by people who empathized with the plight
  of the Indians and wanted a humanitarian
  solution

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Before and After
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The Opening of Indian Territory

• Fifty five Indian nations were forced into Indian
  Territory, the largest unsettled farmland in the
  United States.
• During the 1880s, squatters overran the land, and
  Congress agreed to buy out the Indian claims to
  the region.
• On April 22, 1889, tens of thousands of
  homesteaders lined up at the territorys borders
  to stake claims on the land.

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The Opening of Indian Territory

• By sundown, settlers called boomers had staked
  claims on almost 2 million acres.
• Many boomers discovered that some of the best
  lands had been grabbed by sooners, people who had
  sneaked past the government officials earlier to
  mark their claims.
• Under continued pressure from settlers, Congress
  created Oklahoma Territory in 1890. In the
  following years, the remainder of Indian
  Territory was open to settlement.

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Oklahoma Land Rush (1889)

• Oklahoma was Indian Territory given to the five
  civilized tribes.
• They sided with the Confederacy, the government
  took land as punishment
• 2 million acres free for settlement
• Free land was considered instant prosperity, but
  droughts would make many farms fail

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By 1900

• Most Indians had been driven onto reservations
• Reduced from 1/4 million to 1 hundred thousand
• The culture still survives

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• QUESTIONS?